In a landmark delivered on October 24, 2017 the Supreme Court bench comprising of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta banned the use of dirty furnace oil and pet coke in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh from November 1, 2017.

For quite some time now; pet coke as fuel replacement has played a significant role in the overall cost of production. However, in the recent verdict, Supreme Court has asked Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana to stop the use of pet coke.

The cost of manufacturing cement depends on the input cost of fuel. Pet coke, as a fuel, had to some extent answered this issue over the last couple of years. But the recent decision to review use of pet coke by the country's apex court is likely to be a major blow to the use of this commodity.